Each time we approach a national presidential election we hear much about the electoral college. Many do not understand why we have the electoral college when The President of the United States is elected by the populace.
We have the electoral college because our forefathers saw a danger and they wanted to provide the country with a “safety net.”
God has provided a “safety net” for the church. He has set it up so that the church that:
- Will acknowledge God,
- Will worship God, and
- Will obey God,
will never be AT RISK!
However, any church that turns its back on God runs the RISK of soon having God turn His back on them.
We see clear examples of this in scripture. Let’s examine THREE steps, or elements, in God’s relationship to His church.
I. THE DESIRE OF GOD.
It has always been the desire of God that His church be a strong, godly influence in the molding and shaping of this nation to be what God would have it become.
HOW CAN THE CHURCH BE A STRONG INFLUENCE AND ACCOMPLISH THAT? It can only happen as we are empowered by God’s Holy Spirit. When God’s people will:
- Acknowledge God,
- Worship God, and
- Obey God,
God can use His church.
In America we have the silly notion that if you build a building and place a steeple on top of it and go through the motions of a worship service in it that God is obligated to be there.
Illus: Many think that God looks down from heaven and sees men building a building and He thinks, “I wonder what they are building?” Then one day, when they put a steeple on top, He says, “Oh, they are building a church building for Me.” Then He moves in when the building is completed.
Listen, the only time God has obligated Himself to be in any church is the time when people come together to acknowledge Him, worship Him, and obey Him. Matthew 18:20 tells us, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” When these ingredients are present, God is there. For example,
- When MOSES acknowledged God, worshipped God, and obeyed God, the Bible reveals that those who saw him afterward, noticed he glowed.
- Later, when ISRAEL acknowledged God, worshipped God, and obeyed God, God sent His Shekinah glory on the Ark of the Covenant in the tabernacle for nearly five hundred years.
- Later, when the TEMPLE was built, God moved into the temple and dwelled there for four hundred years.
For almost a thousand years, God’s presence was with Israel. However, when Israel CEASED to acknowledge God, worship God, and obey Him there came a time when God withdrew His Shekinah glory. They trusted in a false security. They thought God would never leave them; BUT, HE DID LEAVE! Look at-
II. THE DEPARTURE OF GOD.
When did God depart? Historical records reveal that the Babylonian empire had become the super power of that day in the near East and they were beginning to threaten the kingdom of Judah.
Prophets like Jeremiah, Daniel, and Ezekiel, tried to warn the people of God of the impending danger. During the next ten years the people of God refused to repent. Instead, they indulged more and more in idol worship.
Then we read these startling words in II Chronicles 36:14-16, “Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And the LORD God of their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling place: But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy.” Look at the words, “...there was no remedy.” Why was there “...no remedy”? Because from the priests on down to the people, everyone had forsaken God. God said of the situation that the relationship between Himself and Israel was beyond repair! God decided He had been on the RECEIVING END of having wickedness thrown in His face long enough. He decided to be on the GIVING END. The situation was irreparable!
Look at Ezekiel 5:8-9. God, Who had been their glory and Who had always been with them, then said, “...Behold, I, even I, am against thee...”
Once God was against them, look what God said would happen to them as you read Ezekiel, chapter 8. God gave Ezekiel a special vision of what was going to transpire.
Look at Ezekiel 8:3-4. We read, “And he put forth the form of an hand, and took me by a lock of mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh toward the north; where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy. And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.” The important thing I want you to notice is what Ezekiel saw when God picked Ezekiel up by his hair and held him between heaven and earth over Jerusalem to look toward the temple. The scripture says, verse 4, “And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.”
However, Ezekiel was shocked to see that not only was God there, but he saw the pagan Babylonian idol (an “image of jealousy”) at the entrance.
Then God tore a hole in the wall of the Holy Place and let Ezekiel see inside.
Look at verses 8-10. We read, “Then said he unto me, Son of man, dig now in the wall: and when I had digged in the wall, behold a door. And he said unto me, Go in, and behold the wicked abominations that they do here. So I went in and saw; and behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.” It was appalling! Ezekiel saw “...idols of the house of Israel...” Ezekiel said that once he got inside the walls of secrecy he saw, “...behold every form of creeping things, and abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed upon the wall round about.”
The priests, who should have been beacons and bulwarks against idolatry, were doing the very things they should have been preaching against!
Illus: If the helmsman on a ship be blind, there is small chance for the safety of the ship.
The church today is in terrible shape and much of the blame has to be placed upon clergymen who have lost their spiritual direction.
God has charted the course for His church in His Word to acknowledge Him, worship Him and obey Him, and many pastors are not following that course. Shipwreck is inevitable!
In Ezekiel’s day, as today, the problem was not only with the CLERGYMEN, it was also with the MEN and WOMEN.
Look at verse 14. We read of the WOMEN. “Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the LORD'S house which was toward the north; and, behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz.”
Tammuz was an Assyrian goddess. Conjecture has it that the women who were weeping before the god they served were shameless prostitutes.
Then look at verse 16. We read of the MEN. “And he brought me into the inner court of the LORD'S house, and, behold, at the door of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men, with their backs toward the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east; and they worshipped the sun toward the east.”
God wants to find CLERGYMEN, MEN and WOMEN today and reveal to them the same way He did to Ezekiel, by “tearing holes" in the innermost parts of His church, that His church is in trouble!
The reason America is in trouble today is because the churches in America are in trouble. All over this nation we see people who claim to know Christ who are bowing down to:
- idols of pleasure and recreation.
- actors and actresses. Some literally worship entertainers.
- idols of sports -- they cannot get enough.
- idols of materialism. Men are working seven days a week so they can have more and more of these gods in their life.
- idols of prestige, power and wealth.
- idols of strong drink and drugs (legal and illegal).
Ezekiel must have been shocked to see what God saw. He was seeing things the way God had been seeing them.
Then Ezekiel saw something happen that He never thought he would see happen. HE SAW THE GLORY OF GOD DEPART FROM THE HOUSE OF GOD.
It did not happen over night. It happened in four stages:
(1) Look at Ezekiel 9:3. We read, “And the glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon he was, to the threshold of the house...”
(2) Look at Ezekiel 10:4. We read, “Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and STOOD OVER the threshold of the house...”
(3) Look at Ezekiel 10:18. We read, “Then the glory of the Lord departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim.”
(4) Look at Ezekiel 11:23. We read, “And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood upon the mountain which is on the east side of the city.”
For the first time in almost a thousand years the SHEKINAH GLORY OF GOD began to move off the wings of the cherubim and began to move away until the temple was left void of the presence of God. He had completely moved out of the temple. The people continued to come to the temple, but God was not there.
This is exactly what has happened to many churches. There had been a time when every Sunday...
- Christians had been on fire for God.
- Christians had been excited about what God was doing and they had gone out and compelled sinners to come to God’s house.
- Christians had sung with hearts full of joy.
- Christians prayed prayers from their hearts.
- Christians gave from hearts of love.
- God’s Word was preached.
But, over a period of time, they had gradually lost the presence of God.
Now, all over this nation, people go to church and go through ritualistic worship services, BUT GOD IS NOT THERE.
Illus: Back in the days when C. H. Spurgeon preached in London, England, God was there in a special way. While God’s men were preaching God’s Word literally hundreds of men were in the basement praying for the power and presence of God in the services. God came and dwelt in that place where literally thousands would flock in. On one occasion Mr. Spurgeon requested that the Christians please stay home for the evening service to make room for all the sinners who were wanting to get inside to hear about the Savior Who had died for their sins.
What is shocking is that today, if you visited that same church where thousands once acknowledged, worshipped, and obeyed God you would see only a hand full of people attending.
That was exactly what happened at the temple. God once filled it with His presence, but then He departed. The people were so busy living their selfish lives that they never even realized He had departed.
When the high priest went into the holy of holys he did not see the Shekinah glory of God that had once filled the temple. He had to lie to the people and tell them He was there. It was a lie! The priest told them what they wanted to hear!
Today, across this vast land of ours, there are preachers doing the same thing those priests did. They are lying to the people. They are not preaching the truth of God’s Word. They are not telling the people that God has left the church and that they need to fall upon their faces before God and repent of their sins and ask Him to return.
Instead they are telling the people that God will dwell among a selfish and sinful people because that is what the people want to hear. The churches go right along, with all their rituals and programs, as if God is there even though He has long departed.
God has departed for the same reason He departed from Israel -- they left Him. The only thing left to come now is...
III. THE DESTRUCTION OF GOD.
Isaiah prophesied a century before Ezekiel what Israel could expect once God departed.
- Isaiah 1:7, the land would be overthrown by strangers.
- Isaiah 1:7, the cities would be burned with fire.
- Isaiah 1:11, God would reject their sacrifices.
- Isaiah 1:15, God would refuse to hear and answer their prayers.
- Isaiah 2:6, God would forsake those who had forsaken Him.
- Isaiah 3:1, their society would collapse into poverty and ruin.
- Isaiah 3:2-4, there would be a scarcity of spiritual, political, and social leadership.
- Isaiah 3:15, God’s people would be abused and the poor would be oppressed.
It happened exactly as was prophesied! When the Babylonians defeated Jerusalem, they literally tore the town down stone by stone. They wrecked the temple and burned it to the ground.
Conclusion: Many believe America has become like Israel -- beyond remedy!
Illus: In his book, “Ablaze With His Glory,” Del Fehsenfeld Jr., said, “The problem with American Christianity is that we want to control God instead of letting God control us. We have replaced absolute surrender with conditional commitment to His will. We want to approach God with a carefully detailed contract instead of turning our lives over to Him as a blank check to do with as He wishes.”
The average church today in America is content with a:
-Moderate crowd.
-Few socials.
-Few dinners a year.
-Some activities to occupy their teenagers that they do not know what to do with.
It does not bother some people in the slightest that God is no longer in their midst. We need to recognize our pathetic condition and stop finding comfort in a false security -- GOD WOULD NEVER LEAVE THIS CHURCH. That was what Israel thought, but GOD DEPARTED.
The only hope for American is for God to send REAL REVIVAL. That will happen when we see the need, pray and repent, and return to obeying God’s Word. II Chronicles 7:14, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
The glory of the church is God’s presence. When we lose the glory of His presence the only things left to glory in are our...
-Buildings.
-Finances.
-Programs.
-Activities.
That is exactly why we hear so much about these things these days. Many churches have lost the PRESENCE OF THE LORD.
I. THE DESIRE OF GOD
II. THE DEPARTURE OF GOD
III. THE DESTRUCTION OF GOD
